Tourism growth sets the tone for a bumper year after 2015 decline

©tomwang via 123RF

"The future of tourism in South Africa is extremely bright," the minister said in his budget vote speech in the National Assembly.

He said the growth in the number of Chinese tourists visiting SA attested to the good decision by Cabinet to allow accredited agencies to apply for visas on behalf of travelers instead of them having to apply in person at an embassy or foreign mission.

"The Chinese market is now rebounding very strongly," Hanekom said. "Tourist arrivals from China in January this year nearly doubled compared to January 2015, and in February, it grew by more than half on the same month in 2015. All indications are that this phenomenal growth is set to continue."

However, the Indian market faced visa issues. "In India, where there is much enthusiasm amongst travel companies about our country and our tourism offer, the main challenge continues to be the long delays in obtaining visas," said Hanekom. He added: "India has a booming outbound travel market and has massive growth potential for SA. We will work closely with the Department of Home Affairs to find a solution to this challenge."

Hanekom emphasised the need for reliable data to underpin his department's National Tourism Sector Strategy which was published in 2011 and has been reviewed. The revised strategy will be gazetted for public comment shortly. Hanekom said one of its recommendations, on which he had taken immediate action, was to set up a statistics advisory panel to address the need for "regular, reliable, and consistent information".

Source: BDpro